Secession and the Power of the Sword

As I mentioned in the Power of the Purse article, you may have seen Edwin Vieira’s three-part series at DumpDC.com, which was a dissenting opinion about secession. His analysis is wrong in all but two points. The point he makes, besides the “Purse” is also unarguable. That is the absolute requirement of a seceding state to wield the Power of the Sword.

The Power of the Sword I speak of here is the State Militia. A seceding state MUST FIRST establish its own military, and the best form of a military for a new nation is a citizen militia.¹

Over the past 20-30 years, the only stories you might have seen in the media about militias were slanted toward gun-toting, camo-wearing crazies who preach white power, or overthrow of Washington, or some other nutty philosophy. But you will be hard pressed to find a serious treatment of the function of a state militia anywhere in the media. So, the very word “militia” has been tainted and associated with kooks. Believe me, that was their very intent.

Anyone who believes in big government cannot abide the idea that each state should have a “well-regulated militia.” The two entities…big government and state sovereignty exhibited through military resistance…are forever at enmity with each other. Brute force wins every time, and big government is the personification of brute force.

The Second Amendment of the US Constitution was supposed to guarantee the existence of state militias. Instead, Washington has inundated Americans with the very laws and regulations that violated the Amendment and purposely infringe upon the right to keep and bear arms. But Washington has always been much less concerned with citizens’ rights to carry concealed weapons than they are committed to stripping the states of their militias. It’s simply that they pulled a Harry Houdini sleight-of-hand ploy. They diverted the attention of the masses over weapons bans, assault rifle restrictions and concealed carry laws…and all the while, militias disappeared in all 50 states.

And the secessionists are deathly afraid of the topic of militias as armed resistance. Serious, substantive discussion about the re-formation and revitalization of the state militia is off-limits in most circles of the secessionist movement. I have likened this fear to posting a “No Guns In Our House” sign in your front lawn. You may be committed to non-violence, but the criminals aren’t.

It is not reasonable to believe that Washington will simply benignly accept the secession of ANY state. It is not reasonable to believe that DC’s lawyers and bureaucrats will negotiate with ANY seceding state in good faith to accomplish a peaceful separation. It is not reasonable to believe that Federal courts will uphold any legal effort at secession. It is whistling past the graveyard.

By the secessionists assuming the kneeling, cowering position of non-resistance, DC already knows that talk about state secession is an example of “big hat, no cattle.” This is also the main reason that Washington is not threatened by the “Tea Party” rallies. When Washington calls the bluff of the secessionists and says “put up or shut up,” all you will hear is crickets chirping from the state secession movements.

That is, secession movements in states without well-regulated militias.

The Founders of the United States, those men who signed the Declaration of Independence, knew that by affixing their signatures to that sacred document, they had signed their own death warrants. They knew that they would be hung for treason if captured. In this present-day environment in which Washington sees a terrorist lurking in every shadow, and each terrorist perceived as a threat to Washington’s very existence, secessionist leaders in every state will have a bulls-eye on their chests.

Washington’s going to take secession efforts very personally. Obama already said so in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

I’ve said time and time again that the timing of secession is everything. I’ve said that the best time for secession is after the coming economic meltdown. True enough. But no matter what happens with the dollar, no matter how bad the economy gets, Washington will still have a core of Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine personnel that will obey orders. They will still own tanks and helicopter gunships and jet fighters and warships. There will be a core of law enforcement personnel in every state that are willing to enforce Federal law.

In the past, I have focused your attention on the secession of 1989, when the Soviet Union dissolved and the 15 republics of the USSR became sovereign nations once again. I have held hope that such a relatively non-violent separation could occur here in the United States. But that faint hope is fast ebbing in me. I fear that the criminal class in Washington is staffed with much more desperate criminals than the ones that held together the Soviet Union.

I do not believe that there is a chance in Hell that secession from the United States of America can succeed without any seceding state FIRST revitalizing its citizen militia. Brute force only respects the resistance of an equal or superior brute force. Ladies and gentlemen, there will be blood spilled for liberty again.

If you disagree with me, I invite you to write with your arguments.

Then the future will show us which of us is right.

Secession is the Hope for Mankind. Who will be first…and wisest?

¹Vieira also wrote compellingly about militias. Find his articles at: News With Views. There are a bunch of them.

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13 Responses to Secession and the Power of the Sword

[…] and the Power of the Sword Posted on February 15, 2010 by Bill Miller This article by Russell D. Longcore on DumpDC.com It is not reasonable to believe that Washington will simply benignly accept the secession of ANY […]

We’ve had the coldest winter here in my memory and today I found evidence that Hell has also now frozen over—as I knew it would before I disagreed with anything you might have to say on the subject of secession.

Two arguments demonstrate your folly (oh how it hurts me to say those words):

1. You are absolutely correct in saying that ” Washington will [not] simply benignly accept … secession.” But I say there is absolutely no way they would send troops into say, Vermont to forceably round up the farmers and shoot those that resisted. They will, as you also say, use all other means available to punish such independent thinking. But if troops moved in, I am sure it would be their “Fort Sumter” public opinion gaff. Other states, and nations, would rise up in violent opposition. Certainly all of the red states would object, and I’ve got to believe the blues would be in full support of their like minded Vermonters. Do you think Massachusetts would silently stand by watching U.S. troops move into one of their sister states? Cut off Social Security they would (even though the geezers are entitled to such) but invade the farmers; forget it. It’s just not politically possible 150 years after the last such adventure.

2. But just for the fun of it, let’s assume your right, and as you suggest, Vermont organizes a strong militia armed with squirrel rifles and sharpened shovels and hoes. So you’re saying a militia, any militia, could fend off an attack from the mightiest armed force in the Universe? If that’s not possible (and it’s not), then why even bother to form one?

You were however spot on with your article on the Power of the Purse; these are the ideas that need to be considered to resist a federal government that would do everything possible (short or an armed invasion) to frustrate and bankrupt any seceding state.

I do forgive you for making just one foolish comment in what seems like thousands of thought provoking articles you have authored. Not a bad record. BTW I was at the Abbeville Institute’s conference in Charleston last week, and DumpDC.com was favorably mentioned from the podium. Everyone I talked with had high praise for your prolific writing and the great work you do.

You underestimate the Feds’ perfidy. At the point that troops would roll into Vermont, camera crews would not be anywhere around…that is, unless the Federal shock troops thought that filming the murders (Waco) would in some way benefit them as they attempted to quell rebellion. And, yes I do believe that adjoining states would stand by and not intervene, because you don’t know their hearts and minds any more than I do. But I know that MOST states won’t either secede or support secession. So, statistically, it’s easy to surmise that adjoining states would turn their backs on their neighbor.

Next, your prejudice is showing. Perhaps you were going for humor with the “squirrel rifles and sharpened shovels” bit. Civilian arms are a little more advanced than in 1776. A semi-auto AR-15 shoots just as accurately as an M-16, and there are thousands of ARs in the hands of civilians. Not to mention long range deer rifles, etc. Plus there are thousands of ex-military civilians who will fight for liberty. Bill, it’s not the weapons, it’s the warfare. The Iraqis and Afghanis are kicking ass with IEDs, the crudest bombs. The American military is mired in 3rd generation warfare, and the successful fighters around the world use 4th generation warfare….the tactics of guerrilla war. And finally, Federal troops are not the “mightiest force in the Universe” when Afghani kids blow their asses off daily.

To: Bill at Secession University
RE: More rebuttal on your posting at DumpDC today

The Afghans humiliated the Soviet troops that were there for over a DECADE. They are doing the same thing to an American military that has more highly technologically advanced weaponry. Drones don’t win a ground war, and the Afghanis are winning.

Why bother forming a militia? Because sovereign states ALL have militaries. And I don’t mean US states. I mean sovereign nations, just like the original colonies were when they seceded. I mean just like Switzerland is TODAY and has been for hundreds of years…protected SOLELY by a citizen militia. The militia is the ONLY reason that the 2nd Amendment was written and ratified…to prevent the new Federal government from bullying the states. The postwar states of 1787 remembered fighting the Redcoats…King George’s foreign policy enforcers…”the mightiest military in the Universe” at that time. (actually, Britian had the mightiest navy. The French were kicking British ass every time they fought.) Look at Washington’s foreign policy. They attack weak countries (Iraq, Afghanistan) and buy off strong ones (North Korea). Total bullies…total cowards.

Washington already knows that the states have no chance in hell of secession without a military. I would love to see Washington’s reaction to just ONE state who revitalized their citizen militia. If the state legislature appropriated the millions it would take to form, train and supply its own citizen militia, what would DC say? That the new state-formed and state-run militia were all terrorists? That the re-arming state was doing something unlawful? The reaction of the tyrants would be priceless!

Why form a militia? Because that is what sovereign nations do. But if you have no intention of being a sovereign nation, don’t bother spending the money.

I do not need forgiveness for ANYTHING I wrote. I made no “foolish comments.” Perhaps you might reconsider the comments you made that started this exchange. Or, we can just agree to disagree.

Civilian cameras are everywhere and the revolution will be greatly televised and youtubed!

Oh…and…aim small, miss small…

Give it all back to them in spades!

And who needs IEDs when you can simply pass out copies of Starving The Monkeys and do more damage!

By the way, here is a link to a couple of nice young ladies who got duped into marrying mercenaries who returned as severely and forever damaged goods. If it weren’t for modern battlefield medicine these ladies would have cried, buried their husbands, mourned them, and then got the hell on with their young vibrant lives. As it is, they feel somehow sentenced, for now at least, to remain enslaved to their very own mangled mass of murderous military-industrial complex mercenaries. Hopefully that will change or at least they will tour the country advocating against BOTH joining the mercenaries AND against marrying a mercenary. Oh for the day when the military-industrial complex is empty…completely empty and good damn riddance! Enough of the Amerikan Global Murderfest!

These broken mercenaries are into the Amerikan taxpayer for $6800.00 per month…each and every month til either they pass on or they become convenient collateral damage in either the VA hospitals or in the upcoming domestic predator drone program.

Sorry looters, but each and every day more people wake up to the truth. In ever increasing numbers they are refusing to be looted for welfare and warfare. If you are a looter or a bureaucrat or a jackboot or a mercenary your pink slip is in the mail and the writing is on the wall…hahaha!

Hey, what are you waiting for, start Starving The Monkeys TODAY!

Starving The Monkeys Continually And Forevermore,
John and Dagny Galt
Atlas Shrugged, Owners Manual For The Universe!(tm)

I’m running for the Vermont Legislature, currently filled with (mostly) Democrat incumbents who dropped all the peace nonsense the moment a Democrat got into the White House, and have concentrated on stealing anything that isn’t nailed down, for the benefit of the corporations who use Vermont as a colony for natural resource exploitation.

That’s $1.2 billion a year, tax-free, stolen and exported from Vermont. On top of that there’s Vermont’s pro rata share of the ‘defence’ budget, and additional $1.5 billion a year.

The passive Legislature are shutting down services, breaking the social contract, and speak of ‘everybody pitching in’. That’s newspeak for Vermonters forced to give up even more of our hard-earned cash, and our dreams of sustainability and self-reliance. With no capital to back up those dreams, dreams they remain.

There is no ‘well regulated militia’ in Vermont. Our Guard were recently sent off to Afghanistan.

But we have TEN independent, secessionist candidates this year! Empires break down, without exception. Someone will have to sort out the mess. There will be a lot of angry people who can’t afford the fuel to farm or to get to work. Somebody has to stand up and speak the truth today (although with gas under $3 a gallon we mostly get laughed at from the windows of SUVs, circling to get the closest possible parking space to the meditation centre).

[…] “Alter” can mean nullification. But nullification cannot prevail when colony/states are no longer sovereign nation/states. They no longer possess the very things that define sovereign nation/states…the power of the purse and the power of the sword. […]

[…] Note: I say it here…it comes out there. I’ve been calling for some states to reclaim the power of the purse. And I said that the first thing to do, to begin getting their citizens used to paying for goods and […]